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Medicine6 May 2014

Working to cure 'dry eye' disease

WASHINGTON D.C. May 6, 2013 -- The eye is an exquisitely sensitive system with many aspects that remain somewhat of a mystery—both in the laboratory and in the clinic. A U.S.-based team of mathematicians and optometrists is working to change this by gaining a better understanding of the inner workings of tear film distribution over the eye's surface. This, in turn, may lead to better treatments or a cure for the tear film disease known as "dry eye." They describe their work in the journal Physics of Fluids. Dry eye disease afflicts millions of people worldwide, with ...

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Science6 May 2014

Predator-prey made simple

WASHINGTON D.C. May 6, 2013 -- A team of U.K. researchers has developed a way to dramatically reduce the complexity of modeling "bistable" systems which involve the interaction of two evolving species where one changes faster than the other ("slow-fast systems"). Described in The Journal of Chemical Physics, the work paves the way for easier computational simulations and predictions involving such systems, which are found in fields as diverse as chemistry, biology and ecology. Imagine, for instance, trying to predict how a population of whales would fare based on the ...

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Science6 May 2014

A cup of coffee a day may keep retinal damage away

ITHACA, N.Y. – Coffee drinkers, rejoice! Aside from java's energy jolt, food scientists say you may reap another health benefit from a daily cup of joe: prevention of deteriorating eyesight and possible blindness from retinal degeneration due to glaucoma, aging and diabetes. Raw coffee is, on average, just 1 percent caffeine, but it contains 7 to 9 percent chlorogenic acid, a strong antioxidant that prevents retinal degeneration in mice, according to a Cornell study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The retina is a thin tissue layer on the ...

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Medicine6 May 2014

Expert guidance strengthens strategies to prevent most common and costly infection

CHICAGO (May 6, 2014) – Surgical site infections (SSIs) are the most common and costly healthcare-associated infection (HAI) in the United States. New evidence-based recommendations provide a framework for healthcare institutions to prioritize and implement strategies to reduce the number of infections. The guidelines are published in the June issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology and were produced in a collaborative effort led by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Hospital Association, ...

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Medicine6 May 2014

New expert guidelines aim to focus hospitals' infectious diarrhea prevention efforts

CHICAGO (May 6, 2014) – With rates of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) now rivaling drug-resistant Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as the most common bacteria to cause healthcare-associated infections, new expert guidance encourages healthcare institutions to implement and prioritize prevention efforts for this infectious diarrhea. The guidelines are published in the June issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. The new practice recommendations are a part of Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections in Acute ...

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Science6 May 2014

As kids age, snacking quality appears to decline

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — The average U.S. child snacks three times a day. Concerned about the role of snacking in obesity, a team of researchers set out to explore how eating frequency relates to energy intake and diet quality in a sample of low-income, urban schoolchildren in the Boston area. They expected that snacking would substantially contribute to kids' overall energy intake, and the new data confirm that. But they were surprised that the nutritional value of snacks and meals differed by age. The findings, led by first author E. Whitney Evans, a ...

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Space6 May 2014

Planck reveals magnetic fingerprint of our galaxy

The team—which includes researchers from the University of British Columbia and the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) at the University of Toronto—created the map using data from the Planck Space Telescope. Since 2009, Planck has charted the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the light from the Universe a mere 380,000 years after the Big Bang. But Planck also observes light from much closer than the farthest reaches of time and space. With an instrument called the High Frequency Instrument (HFI), Planck detects the light from microscopic dust particles ...

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Medicine6 May 2014

GW researcher discovers the mechanisms that link brain alertness and increased heart rate

WASHINGTON (May 6, 2014) — George Washington University (GW) researcher David Mendelowitz, Ph.D., was recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience for his research on how heart rate increases in response to alertness in the brain. Specifically, Mendelowitz looked at the interactions between neurons that fire upon increased attention and anxiety and neurons that control heart rate to discover the "why," "how," and "where to next" behind this phenomenon. "This study examines how changes in alertness and focus increase your heart rate," said Mendelowitz, vice chair ...

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Medicine6 May 2014

Scientists identify new protein in the neurological disorder dystonia

MANHATTAN, Kan. — A collaborative discovery involving Kansas State University researchers may lead to the first universal treatment for dystonia, a neurological disorder that affects nearly half a million Americans. Michal Zolkiewski, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at Kansas State University, and Jeffrey Brodsky at the University at Pittsburgh co-led a study that focused on a mutated protein associated with early onset torsion dystonia, or EOTD, the most severe type of dystonia that typically affects adolescents before the age of 20. Dystonia ...

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Medicine6 May 2014

International team maps nearly 200,000 global glaciers in quest for sea rise answers

An international team led by glaciologists from the University of Colorado Boulder and Trent University in Ontario, Canada has completed the first mapping of virtually all of the world's glaciers -- including their locations and sizes -- allowing for calculations of their volumes and ongoing contributions to global sea rise as the world warms. The team mapped and catalogued some 198,000 glaciers around the world as part of the massive Randolph Glacier Inventory, or RGI, to better understand rising seas over the coming decades as anthropogenic greenhouse gases heat the ...

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Environment6 May 2014

GW researcher looks 'inside the box' for a sustainable solution for intestinal parasites

WASHINGTON (May 6, 2014) — According to the World Health Organization, more than 450 million people worldwide, primarily children and pregnant women, suffer illness from soil-transmitted helminths (STH), intestinal parasites that live in humans and other animals. Considerable effort and resources have been, and continue to be, spent on top-down, medical-based programs focused on administering drugs to control STH infections, with little success. John Hawdon, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology, immunology, and tropical medicine at the George Washington University ...

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Science6 May 2014

Substantial improvements made in EPA's IRIS Program, report says

WASHINGTON – A new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council says that changes EPA has proposed and implemented into its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) process are "substantial improvements." While acknowledging the progress made to date, the report offers further guidance and recommendations to improve the overall scientific and technical performance of the program, which is used to assess the hazards posed by environmental contaminants. In 2011, a Research Council committee reviewed EPA's IRIS assessment for formaldehyde and found ...

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Social Science6 May 2014

More support needed for teaching swimming in schools

Britain could become a nation of non-swimmers if drastic changes aren't made to ensure all young people have access to adequate lessons and facilities, according to academics at the University of East Anglia (UEA). Dr Craig Avieson and Dr Penny Lamb, of UEA's School of Education and Lifelong Learning, warn swimming provisions are falling to secondary physical education (PE) teachers, with 51 per cent of British children aged 7-11 unable to swim 25 metres. Children should be able to swim at least that length by the time they leave primary school, under curriculum requirements ...

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Science6 May 2014

Are we ready for contact with extraterrestrial intelligence?

The SETI project scientists are known for tracking possible extraterrestrial signals, but now they are also considering sending messages from Earth telling of our position. A researcher from the University of Cádiz (Spain) questions this idea in view of the results from a survey taken by students, revealing the general level of ignorance about the cosmos and the influence of religion when tackling these matters. The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project is an initiative that began in the 70s with funding from NASA, but that has evolved towards the collaboration ...

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Science6 May 2014

Mother's Day science: Reactions highlights amazing facts about pregnancy -- video

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2014 — Pregnant women go through a lot to bring a baby into this world: 2 a.m. food cravings, hypersensitivity to certain smells and morning sickness, not to mention labor and delivery. In honor of Mother's Day, the American Chemical Society's (ACS') newest Reactions video highlights the chemistry behind a pregnant woman's altered sense of taste and smell, how mom's diet influences baby's favorite foods and other pregnancy phenomena. The video is available at http://youtu.be/Gnqjh-L4e9g And because moms always deserve more, we've created a bonus video ...

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Science6 May 2014

State of the nation's egotism: On the rise for a century

ANN ARBOR—Forget the "me" generation. A new analysis of long-term trends in egotism shows there's been a "me" century in America. The analysis, conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, shows that characteristics related to self-interest, compared to interest in the lives and needs of other people, was low during the 19th century but rose steadily after the turn of the 20th century. "We found that self-interest tends to peak after economic booms," said William Chopik, a doctoral candidate in psychology at U-M and first author of the paper just published ...

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Medicine6 May 2014

Snacking contributes to fatty liver and abdominal obesity

Researchers from The Netherlands found that snacking on high-fat and high-sugar foods was independently associated with abdominal fat and fatty liver (hepatic steatosis). According to the study published in Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, hypercaloric diet with frequent meals increases intrahepatic triglyceride content (IHTG) and fat around the waist, but increasing meal size did not. Obesity is a global health concern with the World Health Organization reporting that more than 200 million men and close to 300 million ...

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Science6 May 2014

Scientists challenge FIFA: Save the 3-banded armadillo

New research in Biotropica asks FIFA to follow through with its environmental claims. The 2014 FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) World Cup will be played in Brazil. Its "Football for the Planet" program aims to monitor greenhouse gasses, provide environmentally friendly stadiums, and better waste management. However, FIFA has not maximized this opportunity. In an article published in the upcoming issue, researchers challenge the role that FIFA and the Brazilian government play in protecting the environment, asking both to: protect 1,000 hectares ...

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Medicine6 May 2014

Mobile health apps lack behavior-change techniques

Behavior-change techniques are not well represented in the marketing materials for top-rated physical-activity apps, according to a team of Penn State researchers. They also found that two types of physical-activity apps are available on the market -- those that focus on educating users on how to perform different exercises and those that focus on supporting users' motivation for physical activity. "The app marketplace is largely unregulated and users make decisions based on developers' descriptions of apps," said David Conroy, professor of kinesiology. "Our results ...

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Science6 May 2014

$200 bird scaring line for trawlers can cut albatross deaths by over 90 percent

The sight of seabirds following trawlers in order to feast from discarded fish is a common maritime sight, but each year many thousands of seabirds are killed by overhanging cables or in nets. New research in Animal Conservation assesses mortality figures from South Africa to show that a simple bird scaring line can reduce the mortality rate by over 90%. The research compiled data from five years of observations to compare current and historic mortality rates. Previous research shows that in 2006 approximately 18,000 seabirds were killed each year by the South African ...

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Environment6 May 2014

The first globally complete glacier inventory has been created

Thanks to the efforts of an international group of scientists – one of them is Tobias Bolch from Technische Universität Dresden, Germany - who have mapped all of the world's glaciers, glaciologists can now study with unprecedented accuracy the impacts of a changing climate on glaciers worldwide, and determine their total extent and volume on a glacier-by-glacier basis. Overall, glaciers cover an area of about 730,000 km2 and have a volume of about 170,000 km3. The scientists found nearly 200,000 of them, but they say that this is the least important result of the mapping ...

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Science6 May 2014

How have changing sea-levels influenced evolution on the Galapagos Islands?

VIDEO: This movie is a simple 0 m to -210 m geographical loop sequence at 5 m increments. Important features are the substantial gaps between Galapagos' "core " islands even at -100... Click here for more information. The Galapagos Islands have an iconic status in the history of evolutionary study, now new research shows that the islands' own geological past may have influenced the evolution of the chain's native species. Writing in the Journal of Biogeography, ...

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Science6 May 2014

Adults at higher risk of suicide attempt if parent abused alcohol, research finds

WASHINGTON -- People who grew up with a parent who abused alcohol may be 85 percent more likely to attempt suicide than people whose parents did not abuse alcohol, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. Furthermore, having divorced parents increased by 14 percent the risk that a person would try to take his or her own life when compared to people whose parents did not divorce, the study found. But putting those two factors together - parents who abuse alcohol and are divorced -- did not increase suicide attempts, according to the study, ...

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Social Science6 May 2014

University of Toronto researchers find seeing 'Jesus in Toast' phenomenon perfectly normal

TORONTO, ON – People who claim to see "Jesus in toast" may no longer be mocked in the future thanks to a new study by researchers at the University of Toronto and partner institutions in China. Researchers have found that the phenomenon of "face pareidolia"--where onlookers report seeing images of Jesus, Virgin Mary, or Elvis in objects such as toasts, shrouds, and clouds--is normal and based on physical causes. "Most people think you have to be mentally abnormal to see these types of images, so individuals reporting this phenomenon are often ridiculed", says lead researcher ...

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Science6 May 2014

Chimpanzees show similar personality traits to humans, Georgia State researchers say

ATLANTA--Chimpanzees have almost the same personality traits as humans, and they are structured almost identically, according to new work led by researchers at Georgia State University. The research also shows some of those traits have a neurobiological basis, and that those traits vary according to the biological sex of the individual chimpanzee. "Our work also demonstrates the promise of using chimpanzee models to investigate the neurobiology of personality processes," said Assistant Professor Robert Latzman of Psychology, who led the research team. "We know that ...

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